Turn Around
by Moyima
Summary: Response to the LV ER Challenge. Requirements in chapter one. Luke is in an accident and infected with a deadly venom. His doctors have to find a family member to get a clean blood sample in order to save him.
1. Chapter 1

Response to the "ER" challenge. The challenge requirements were:

Either Luke OR Vader has been diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition. The only hope of survival is the cooperation of a close family member, who must donate something organic (e.g. an organ, blood, tissue, bone marrow etc).

The fic can be set before Luke knows Vader is his father, if you so wish.

The fic must feature:

1) Luke and Vader

2) at least one real medical fact about the type of donation you have

chosen.

Optional:

3) in true tv medical drama style, a scene where a bunch of doctors run along a corridor pushing an emergency stretcher, and yelling medical jargon at each other.

- bonus points if you can make this scene credible.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

CHAPTER ONE

Medical Technician Xil Qualar stormed down the corridor flanked by two medbay assistants. He snatched a medical chart from the stick-like fingers of the Verpine who hurried along at his right, his taloned toes scratched at the durasteel flooring. The Verpine's antennae twitched in annoyance, but he remained silent as the Omwati doctor scanned the notes quickly without breaking his stride.

"What is the patient's condition?" Xil asked, his intense blue eyes still studying the chart.

"Patient has suffered from a massive dose of Quilar venom..."

The Omwati doctor stopped in his tracks and stared at the Verpine, his pale blue skin faded to a near white; his eyes reflected a mixture of horror and morbid curiosity.

"Kai," Xil whispered to the Verpine, "When... when will he arrive?"

Kai's fathomless black eyes stared back betraying no emotion, "Momentarily."

Xil nodded, tucked the chart under his arm and ran down the corridor.

oOo

Xil felt his pulse quicken when he saw the patient strapped down to the gurney being tugged out of the emergency escort. As soon as the hovering form was free of the vehicle, Xil sprung forward and pressed his stethoscope against the victim's chest. He jogged along side the stretcher as it glided into the medbay and down the corridor.

"How long ago was he infused with the venom?" Xil demanded.

"About thirty minutes ago," a desperate voice said from his elbow. Xil started and glanced to his side to find that a young brunette was keeping pace with the stretcher right next to him. He was about to protest her presence when he recognized the tear-streaked face.

"Your highness!" he gasped, nearly tripping on the feet of the emergency response tech in front of him, "Were you with him when this occurred?"

She nodded, clasping the prone figure's hand. "Please, this can't be happening, I can't lose him too!"

Xil dismissed the princess' added comment; he didn't have time to think about it. "I need an IV here, stat!" he yelled, "This patient needs anti-venom!"

"It will not work!" the insectoid insisted from across the gurney, "The proper cocktail must be produced."

Xil shot a dirty look at Kai, "I am well aware," he snapped, "however until we can obtain access to a clean sample of his blood, we must give him something to help him hold onto life... and sanity."

"What do you mean?" Leia's broken voice cut into the argument.

Xil glanced down at her, a serious expression on his soft features, "The Quilar's venom contains a hallucinogenic component, if he falls too deeply into the coma that the poison induces, then his brain may lose its rational functionality."

Leia stopped dead in the corridor and watched with wide eyes as her best friend vanished into the emergency operating room. She could hear the technicians screaming orders at each other until the door swung shut behind them.

And then there was silence.

oOo

When the patient was as stable he could be without anti-venom, Xil sent Kai out to find Princess Leia. He'd searched every possible record and had found, much to his dismay, that Luke Skywalker had not once, in his three and half years of service, submitted a blood sample.

There was no uncontaminated sample available.

Unless they found a close family member to donate blood for the anti-venom cocktail, Luke Skywalker would be locked in a perpetual nightmare and die when his brain shut down from the shock.

He hoped against hope that the princess could provide a name of a donor.

oOo

"Luke's an orphan!" Leia cried hysterically. She could not believe this nightmare. First Han was frozen in carbonite and sold off like some piece of commodity art, and now Luke... He was stuck in a comatose-state; trapped in unthinkable nightmares that would eventually terrify him to death—literary.

The Omwati doctor sat across from her; an unreadable expression masked his face, but she could see desperation in his eyes. He reached out and took her hand.

"We'll take a sample of his blood; the genetic structure is still intact. We will search all available data, Alliance and Imperial alike."

Leia raised her head and looked at him in shock, "But how...?"

"My assistant, the Verpine, he was once a slave on an Imperial starship. I don't know what you know of the Verpine, but they are technological junkies. During his... stay there, Kai was able to access networks of information and enter a code that would allow him in from any location. It's risky, but if there's a match out there, there's a good bet that the Empire would have it on file."

"Why's that?"

Xil shifted his gaze away from the princess, his blue eyes radiated discomfort, "My... my father was in the service of Grand Moff Tarkin in the early years the Empire," he looked at Leia with what looked like guilt to her, "In the days when people believed that the Empire would bring peace and order. He worked rather close to the Grand Moff and there were whispers of the name Skywalker. He never found out who this Skywalker was... but..."

Leia shook her head and grabbed his arm, dragging him up from his seat, "A hunch is enough for me, doctor! Let's see what we turn up!"

oOo

Leia found her eyes glued to Luke's face as Xil and Kai extracted the small blood sample from Luke's arm. She crossed her arms over her chest, trying not to squirm.

"Wh... why do you need a blood sample from Luke or a family member for this..."

"Anti-toxin cocktail," Kai finished for her.

"The venom infects the red blood cells. It slowly rewrites the genetic data, changing the hemoglobin concentration." Xil glanced up and noticed the bewildered look on the princess' face. "Oxygen levels," he explained, "as the hemoglobin levels decrease the brain functions slow and become overwhelmed by the hallucinations that are brought on by the venom. The combination of the two completely shut down the body; resulting in fatality."

Leia nodded stiffly. This donor search was their only chance. Would they find a long lost relative of Luke out there?

oOo

Kai tapped his long, clawed fingers on the desktop as the computer scanned through the millions of Imperial data files, searching for a match to the blood sample he had provided. The patient was slipping further into his coma by the hour and everyone in the medbay was beginning to believe that Luke Skywalker had simply come out of nowhere. But Kai could not accept that his computer couldn't find a match. Out of the billions of beings in the galaxy, one of them had to share blood with this boy—

The computer chimed at him.

Kai's black eyes stared at the screen as a file popped up, exposing a simple string of information. The Verpine leapt from his seat and charged down the corridor. He skidded into Luke Skywalker's room, scratching the floor and walls with his claws. He hissed through his mandibles, "A match. A perfect match."

Xil stood dropping a datapad from his hand, "What?"

"A parent!"

oOo

Most of the information in the file was locked under strict classification. Xil, Kai, and Leia pushed this disturbing development aside, they would deal with that when it came. Kai was able to hack through enough barriers to find a contact number.

"I can send a message," he rasped, "but we'll have no idea who we're sending it to. I can't guarantee that the owner of this blood sample will receive the message."

"Do it anyway. Give them the coordinates of a deserted system. I'll take Luke there on a shuttle and rendezvous." Leia said.

Xil shook his head, "That is far too dangerous."

"We can't send the coordinates of the base to an unknown Imperial, but we don't have time to play message tag. We need that blood now."

Xil was silent for a moment, thinking, "Very well, but I will accompany you."

"So will I," Kai chimed in immediately.

"No, I can't let you endanger yourselves too."

Xil shrugged, "And I can't let you take a patient out of my custody."

Leia blinked at Xil's cold logic, "Very well. Send the message; then we'll go prep Luke and a medical shuttle for departure."

oOo

The cold expanse of space lay before him dotted with the profiles of Imperial warships. He watched as the massive fleet ordered itself in relation to the ship he gazed out at them from: the _Executor. _

The Dark Lord of the Sith turned away from the viewport, "I will be in my quarters," he remarked to the _Executor_'s admiral as he strode by. When Vader finally reached his quarters, he looked again from the viewport out at the gathering starships. Their stark surfaces gleamed with the light cast from the system's sun. This was beauty. Power: ordered and harnessed.

His eyes were drawn to his desk where a small light flashed. He frowned. Moving to the desk he sat, frowning still at the offending flashing light. He slapped the console to call up the message. It was text, not hologramatic, and sent through the holonet databanks; one of his spies would never communicate with him via such an insecure line. So, he began to read.

I was not able to find your name in the databanks where I found this call number, so I am contacting you out of faith, my situation is desperate. My friend is suffering from a massive dose of Quilar venom and needs an anti-venom cocktail made from untainted blood from either himself or a close family member. We have no sample from him, so we searched the databanks to find a match—and we found you. According to our computer, you are parent to my friend. 

Vader sat bolt upright.

I don't know how this is possible; he thinks that he is an orphan. Please, meet me at the coordinates enclosed. You are our only hope. I will have a medical shuttle with only myself, my friend, and two medical techs on board. Please help us. 

Vader stared at the screen for several moments. He thought he could hear the sound of his own heartbeat. Then he slammed his fist into the comm. unit.

"Admiral!"

"Milord?" the shaky voice of the admiral returned.

"Sent a message out to the fleet telling them to remain here until we return; set course for the coordinates that I'm transmitting to you."

There was an uncertain pause, then a hurried reply, "Yes, Milord, right away."

"And admiral..."

"Yes, Milord?"

"Send the head medical technician to my quarters immediately."

"Ye— Yes, Milord."

oOo

Leia was staring out of the cockpit viewport, she could no longer hide the fact that she was trembling.

"You need rest," a soft voice spoke behind her.

Leia gasped and turned to find Xil standing in the hatchway, looking down at her. He looked otherworldly with his willowy silver hair and pale blue skin, but it was his eyes that mesmerized Leia and calmed her; those eyes that looked like blue fire.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice shaking, "you startled me."

Xil moved slowly and sat in the copilot's seat, he leaned forward and looked at her, concerned, "Then it is I who should be apologizing, I did not mean to frighten you."

Leia waved it off and looked back out the viewport.

"You carry a heavy burden with you," Xil spoke softly, "to truly help the people you care about— you must first care for yourself."

Leia looked back at him, her eyes full of tears, "There were three of us. Three perfect friends. But then I did the unthinkable and fell in love with one of them," she choked slightly holding back a sob, "He was frozen in carbonite by Vader a few weeks ago..."

"Yes, I know of it. And Luke lost his hand."

Leia nodded, "Luke hasn't been the same since, but he's still been here. But now... now, I might lose him too."

"If we make contact with this donor, the chances of saving him are very high."

"_If_ we make contact!" she spat bitterly, "Who knows who's going to receive that message! I mean, what kind of parent lets their child grow up thinking that they're an orphan! Or maybe the file isn't even current! Maybe that person is dead!"

Leia stopped and looked at Xil who had suddenly gone very pale.

"Doctor?"

"I think I know to whom we sent that message, your highness."

Leia turned her head and followed Xil's gaze out the viewport.

The _Executor_ was hanging in space before them and a TIE escort was heading straight for them.

A/N: It was kinda bugging me that Leia is a close blood relative and they didn't find her as a match. I had Kai check the Imperial databank first, and it happened to find Vader's file before Leia's and they didn't continue the search. That's how I'm justifying it to myself; I hope it works for you too. We do what we must to make it an L/V.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Leia was tearing through the ship, screaming for Kai to prep them for hyperspace. She ran into the room where Luke was, and found Kai calmly taking notes on Luke's vitals.

"The i _Executor_ /i is here!"

The insectoid nodded absently.

"Vader is on that ship!"

"It's Xil's call. You're yelling at the wrong guy."

Leia whipped around to go back to find Xil, but stopped when she found him right behind her, leaning against the doorframe.

"Doctor! We have to go now!"

Xil crossed his arms over his chest, "Then he will die," he said, nodding towards Luke.

"He'll die anyway! That's Vader! He's been hunting Luke!"

Xil nodded, "Did you ever consider why?"

Leia stood stark still and stared at the Omwati in confusion, "He blew up the Death Star... he's training to be a Jedi..." She trailed off as Xil shook his head.

"Luke Skywalker never gave a statement about what occurred on Bespin..."

"He lost his hand! Vader tried to kill him!"

"If that were the case, he'd have no problem sharing that information."

Leia's jaw dropped, she took a threatening step forward, "What exactly are you insinuating, doctor?"

The ship shook as it was caught in a tractorbeam.

"I'm simply saying that the mysterious circumstances of Bespin, combined with the fact that a message sent out to a parent-match of Luke's blood sample is answered by Vader's flagship, are too much evidence to deny."

The small medical shuttle jerked again. They were in the i _Executor_ /i 's hangar bay.

Leia's eyes were wide with fear, but her face was flushed in anger. "You'd better be right about this, Xil, but you realize, even if you are—we're all dead."

oOo

Vader stood in the landing bay, Admiral Piett and his Chief Medical Tech stood with him; they watched as the small shuttle was surrounded by stormtroopers. Thus far, the ship and its occupants had offered no resistance. He assumed that the friend who had sent the message was the princess, considering the current state of Solo, the lack of resistance from her meant that Luke must be in grave danger. He was about to order the ship to be forcibly opened when the ramp began to extend towards the floor.

At the top of the ramp stood a slim figure with wispy silver hair and pale blue skin, which Vader recognized immediately as being an Omwati. The Omwati was dressed in the crisp white uniform of a medical tech, he strode halfway down the ramp and caught sight of Vader and the doctor next to him. He waved them towards the ship.

"Quickly," he said softly, as if he weren't trapped in the flagship of his enemies' second-in-command, "There is not much time."

Vader nodded to his Chief Medical Tech who immediately jogged to the ship and up the ramp, vanishing with the Omwati. Vader then followed at a more dignified pace, concealing his anxiety and desire to sprint onto the shuttle and find his son.

And it was Luke onboard that shuttle. He could feel his son's nightmare-ridden consciousness screaming out through the Force. He moved up the ramp and ducked into the compact shuttle. He immediately turned towards the rear of the small craft, where he could clearly feel the presences of every being onboard. He didn't enter the small room when he reached it; he stayed in the corridor watching like a guardian angel.

The Omwati doctor was saying how fortunate it was that the i _Executor_ /i medical team had already synthesized the anti-venom cocktail. The three-man motley medical team was surrounding his son's prone form on the cot. Vader watched as they injected the cocktail into Luke's forearm. Princess Leia was standing in the corner of the tiny room, her arms cradled against her chest. She paced nervously as the two doctors and assistant began checking all of Luke's vitals again and again, searching for any change.

Vader observed unnoticed from the doorway.

Several minutes went by with no change. The three continued to monitor their patient, taking the same vitals again and again, looking for any sign. They'd done all they could, it was now up to Luke to pull through.

"How long since he was exposed to the venom?" Pe'kcha, the i _Executor_ /i Chief Medical Tech, asked.

The Omwati didn't even pause, "15 hours."

Pe'kcha turned his face towards the wall, but Vader still caught the small curse he uttered. Things were not looking good for his son. He stepped into the room, eliciting gasps from the Verpine and the princess.

"Transfer him to the i _Executor_ /i 's medbay so that he may be monitored more carefully," he said softly, it was more of an offer than an order.

The Omwati and Pe'kcha immediately began prepping the patient for transport, while the Verpine and princess just stood and watched, stunned.

oOo

No one had moved from the room since Luke had been transferred there from the small shuttle. Leia hadn't even noticed when the ship's admiral entered and Vader ordered him to bring the i _Executor_ /i back to the fleet. Vader had since been introduced to the Rebel medical techs, Xil Qualar and his assistant Kai. The Verpine seemed very nervous being aboard an Imperial ship, but Xil was cool, calm, and professional.

"When will he awaken?" Vader asked the Omwati doctor.

Xil pressed his pale lips together, "There is really no set timeframe, Lord Vader. It depends on many independent factors. I am inclined to expect Luke to be comatose for weeks due to the length of exposure he had to the venom before an antidote was administered, however, I am not familiar with how his Force sensitivity will affect his healing."

Vader nodded, relived that his son had a professional, to-the-point caretaker. He was fairly certain he'd kill anyone who tried to withhold information from him.

"The nightmares," Vader ventured, "when will they cease?"

The Omwati looked at Vader curiously for a moment, "Forgive me, Milord, but I don't recall mentioning anything about nightmares."

Vader wasn't looking at the doctor, his mask was turned towards the bed, "He's plagued by them," Vader divulged softly, "his mind has been screaming." Vader turned his eyes back to Xil, "Incoherent ramblings, of course, but he's terrified."

"You can...?"

"The Force, and our blood relation, enables easy communication."

Xil's eyes widened slightly, Vader could distinctly see a flicker of fascination. "Is this communication... can you...?"

"Am I able to speak to him?" Vader supplied.

Xil nodded.

"Normally, yes, but it seems that I am the product of many of his nightmares and he doesn't recognize me as separate of them."

The Omwati pressed his pale lips together, "Can you force your way in? Can you shake him out of it?"

Vader tilted his head slightly and gave the doctor an unseen frown, "I fear that would damage him further."

"And I fear the nightmares will permanently rob him of his sanity, whereas being jolted out of a nightmare can be healed."

"Can it?"

"I believe so."

Vader's posture seemed to take on a threatening stance, "I know that we have not discussed the fact openly, doctor, but it would do you well to remember that this boy is my son. My heir. And you are at my mercy. If you are going to put forth such dangerous suggestions, I advise you to consider Luke's survival on par with your own. You will need more conviction than 'believing so'."

"I consider my patient's survival and full recovery my top priority, Lord Vader." Xil said softly, not at all intimidated by Vader's threat. "I made my suggestion that you communicate with your son because I believe it critical that he realize his dreams are just that—dreams. Only when he realizes that he's dreaming can he wake. No matter how much that frightens him."

Vader was silent for a moment, torn between relief that the idea might work and burning annoyance with the Omwati for daring to contradict him. He glared at Xil as if to say, 'I'm not finished with you' and moved to sit in the chair at Luke's bedside. Leia, who was pacing nervously on the other side of the bed, frowned at Vader's close proximity to Luke.

Vader ignored her. He leaned back in the chair and stretched his thoughts towards the chaos-ridden mind of the boy lying before him. He probed around the edges of Luke's nightmares and then pushed into them.

Had he been able, he would have gasped. He felt as if he'd been dowsed in freezing water and then set upon the wastelands of Hoth. Vader felt his consciousness being pushed at, as if by a gale wind, as he moved forward across the desolate imaginary landscape of his son's mind. He could hear screaming, a throaty, raw sound, much like the sound of his son's denial on that gantry at Bespin.

i What a disaster that had been, /i Vader thought, plowing forward through the mindscape, i If only I had let go of my Master's obsessive absolutes: join us or die? I should have just dragged him from that gantry kicking and screaming. And if I had, he'd not be on the verge of insanity and death now. /i 

Vader passed pillars of ice that seemed to stab at the churning sky above. Clouds of black hung there, spiraling as if they might break into a storm at any moment. The Sith glanced at the pillars, noting that one contained Solo, resembling the chunk of carbonite that the smuggler was currently encased within. Further on, yet another pillar contained Princess Leia, her mouth wide in a frozen scream. And the next... Vader stopped so suddenly that his mind was almost jerked back into his own body.

In the pillar that towered before him, he stared up as his own form encased in the ice. The mask concealed any horrified expression that might have been etched into his features, making his double seem almost serene; like the pillar were a coffin and he was being laid to rest.

Vader stood stock still. Not shocked by the image of himself in death, but by the fact that it was there at all. Why was he frozen alongside those whom his son held dear?

"I was confused by it at first, too."

Vader started at the sudden sound, and turned to find the form of his son standing behind him.

"Luke..."

"I... are you a dream?" Luke's lower lip trembled slightly, like a child crawling into his parents' arms in the dead of night to escape the monsters under his bed.

Vader shook his head, "I am not, but this," he swept his hand at the landscape around them, "is. You need to come out. You need to wake up."

Luke merely blinked at him. Then looked up at the pillar behind Vader. "I did that, you know," he spoke softly; he let his eyes wander to the pillar encasing Han, "First, I fell into your trap at Bespin, and Han ended up like that."

Vader shook his head, "That wasn't your fault..."

Luke continued as if Vader had never spoken, "And Leia, she came back to help me, and..."

Vader understood completely now. Luke had been reliving Bespin, and had even been coming up with possibilities of how the fiasco could have gone even worse.

"And then you..." he gazed up at the frozen pillar, "I... I would not join you and the Emperor killed you." Luke's voice was soft, wistful, but then he looked at Vader and hatred seemed to burn behind his eyes, "You wouldn't fight back! You just let him destroy you! Just before you died you looked at me! You looked at me, and I knew that it was because of me that you wouldn't fight back, that you wouldn't save yourself! You were so disappointed... so ashamed of how weak I was, that you didn't want to live."

"Luke..."

"NO!" Luke stepped away from the advancing form of his father, "I won't! I won't watch it again!"

"Watch what, Luke?" Vader's voice wafted across the landscape with unnatural clarity.

Luke's eyes fluttered, as if some part of his brain noticed that the soft voice spoke directly into his thoughts, "I... I won't watch you reject me again. I won't watch you die of disappointment."

Vader scoffed. "Is this what all this is, boy?" he snarled. "You're wallowing in self pity while your princess paces at your bedside, sick with worry, and I stand in constant watch over you?"

Luke shook his head, gripping it between his hands, "What are you talking about?"

"Focus, child!" Vader roared, "You were on a mission and somehow got yourself infused with a deadly dose of Quilar venom!"

"I... huh?"

"You've been comatose for approximately twenty hours. Save for Solo's situation, all of this," he swept his hand around again, "Is a product of your imagination."

Luke just stared at him, blinking occasionally.

Vader snarled, stalked up to the pillar that encased the phantom of himself, and drove his fist into it. Shards of ice flew in spirals around father and son like shards of glass. Vader turned just in time to see Luke vanish, and he felt his breath freeze in his throat.

oOo

Vader gasped as he careened back into his own consciousness. He was on his feet without thinking, his fists clenched. His disorientation quickly dispelled when he heard another deep gasp coming from the bed in front of him.

Luke had awoken. His mouth and eyes were wide. He tilted his neck back so that its top was pressed into the pillow. His wrists and heels were pressed into the mattress, as he arched his back, pulling his entire body off from the medbay cot. And then his voice began to work. A raw scream poured out of the young man's throat, and he began to thrash wildly, knocking instruments in every direction.

Xil and Kai were upon him at once, Pe'kcha was checking as many vitals as he could without getting knocked out.

"His blood pressure and heart rate are too high," he said calmly, as if those facts were not obvious to any observer in the room. "We need to calm him down or sedate him."

"He just woke up!" Leia protested, trying to push her way past Kai to get to her friend. The Verpine pushed her back with one of his oddly jointed legs.

Vader was having better luck than the princess; he had gotten up next to Xil and was pressing down upon Luke's shoulders, forcing the young man to look up at him.

Suddenly, Luke stopped moving.

"You're alive?" he whispered.

Vader nodded, "As is Princess Leia."

At this, Kai allowed Leia to step up next to the bed and look down on him.

"And Han?"

Leia shook her head, "Gone. Taken to Jabba."

Luke's lower lip began to shake, as it had in the dream state. Vader grasped his shoulders tighter, least he lose him again. "He can be recovered," Vader said, "And his capture was not your fault."

Vader ignored Leia as she brought her eyes away from Luke to stare at him.

"Luke, I need you to breathe. Remain calm. You are safe. Everything will be all right."

With every assurance, Luke's tense muscles seemed to relax. His wild eyes focused and he looked around the room.

"Where... where am I?"

Leia pressed her lips together, weary of starting another panic from her friend, but Xil saved her the trouble.

"Medbay," he said.

Luke blinked, and looked up at where Vader had been, but Vader had moved out of his line of sight. Luke frowned to himself, and then settled against the pillows stacked behind him. Leia felt a spike of guilt shoot through her: in his unstable condition, he had forgotten that Vader was there.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Xil found Vader pacing the _Executor_'s bridge. The Omwati stopped next to the ship's admiral. He said nothing; he just stood and watched to Dark Lord as he distressed the entire bridge crew.

"He's been there for about an hour," the admiral commented dryly.

"Yes, I thought as much," Xil returned, "That was when _he_ woke up."

Admiral Piett didn't glance away from the figure of the pacing Lord of Sith, nor did he miss a beat, "The boy you brought here."

Xil nodded minutely, and then turned his eyes to Piett, "Do you know who he is?"

Piett kept his eyes firmly forward, "Yes, I recognized him."

Xil remained silent, leaving the unspoken question hanging in the air between them. After several moments, Piett spoke again.

"He's treading towards treason, isn't he?"

Xil shrugged, "So do you in staying silent."

It was then that Piett broke his forward-stare to look at the Omwati, "My loyalties lie with Lord Vader. Betraying him would be treason."

oOo

Luke cracked his eyes open the moment he was sure the room was empty. He had heard one of the doctors tell Leia that he was going to go talk to _him_ (who 'him' was, Luke wasn't sure) and she had replied that she was going to get a few hours of sleep. Luke still had hazy and disconcerting imagines floating through his head and he still wasn't able to sort out what was real and what was a product of his twenty hour nightmare. There were two things he was sure of, though: Leia and the doctor weren't telling him everything, and the Force was screaming to him that there was something he needed to find.

He threw back the sheets of the medbay cot and slowly pushed himself up. His head swam from the movement; but he went slow and steady and was soon testing his luck at standing. He shook slightly, but sighed happily as his legs adjusted and held him. Still holding onto the bed, he looked carefully around the small room. It was an individual intensive care unit, set off from the rest of the medbay. It was a stark, sterile room that reminded Luke of no medbay he'd ever been in. Was he at some special installation? Luke could feel a slight vibration on his feet and he instantly recognized the feel of a large starship engine.

He walked in a wavering line towards the door and leaned against it for a moment to catch his breath before hitting the release. He glanced out the door to find a deserted corridor to match his room: stark and sterile. He sighed and stepped out of the room. "Aren't there any people on this ship?" he murmured, holding his hand against to cold durasteel wall to steady himself. After a several minute trek through nondescript corridors, Luke found himself standing before a lift. He reached out and touched the call button and was slightly surprised when the door opened for him.

"No clearance code?"

He stepped into the lift and looked around for a row of buttons, but found none. He resigned himself to just wait as the doors slid shut and the lift began to rise.

oOo

Vader was trying to find calm, but it had been so many years that only the chaos of the Dark Side answered his call and he was left with nothing but rage. His son was lying comfortably in his personal medbay completely obvious to the fact that he was nestled (quite literally) under his father's wing.

He didn't want to send Luke into another life-threatening panic, but he wanted to see him! He wanted to talk to him! He wanted his chance! The selfish part of him wanted to tell Luke that is was he that had saved him, he that him owed his life...

But of course Luke owed him his life, he was his father.

He mentally shook himself, disgusted with his own childishness. He didn't need recognition for saving Luke's life; it was his duty to save Luke's life—to protect Luke's life.

What had happened to him? When had he hit this low? He wanted to bring order to the universe. He couldn't even keep his family in order.

But, he reminded himself, that was before. That was when his wayward son was lost in the miasma of the Alliance. Not now. Now his son was safely tucked away. Asleep. Oblivious.

oOo

Luke's breath quickened as the lift door silently slid aside to reveal a gigantic bridge. His fingertips brushed metal as he gingerly stepped from the lift, his bare feet sticking to the cold durasteel. His limbs began to tremble, but he could not discern if it was from the chill of the immense area or the sight of the dark figure looming against the backdrop of space. The ebony cloak, the gleaming helmet, the hissing breath. Vader.

Was he still in his nightmare? Was he still trapped by the venom in his own mind?

It was then that the midnight figure turned and looked over his shoulder at the young man, catching him in his gaze like a demon on the hunt for souls. Luke stumbled back, mumbling, "No..."

A black glove rose towards him as he fell back into the lift. The glove reached for him... just as it had on Bespin.

The lift closed.

oOo

"LUKE!"

"Omph!" He stumbled and fell into a heap in the corridor, sliding across the cool floor until he crashed into a wall a few meters from the lift.

Leia scrambled to him and knelt, touching his back gingerly, "Oh Luke, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you."

"I tripped," he mumbled into the floor.

"Yes. I'm sorry..."

"S'ok."

"Can you stand?"

Luke pressed his face against the floor for a moment, and then looked up at the girl looming over him. "Leia?"

She nodded.

Luke let out an anguished moan and sat up, promptly burying his face in his hands and knees. "Then it's true."

"What, Luke?"

He looked up at her, "I'm still in the nightmare."

Leia balanced on the balls of her feet, frowning at him, "You woke up from your nightmare hours ago, Luke. You're safe now. I promise."

"But..."

She reached to place her hand on his forehead, but as she moved towards him his eyes widened. He was looking over her shoulder.

Vader had stepped from the lift.

"Luke, it's —" Leia began.

He had already passed out.

oOo

"Why did this happen? He was showing signs of recovery, and then he experiences this relapse."

Dr. Oualar pressed his lips into a narrow line for a moment, gathering his thoughts, "I... Sir, I believe it is his presence here that is keeping him unstable."

Vader gazed at the Omwati with his expressionless stare, and yet was still able to convey distress. "I don't understand."

Xil looked at his feet. He could handle emergency and trauma situations. He could deal with life and death... but not this. Not telling a father this. Even _this_ father.

"Sir... when Luke was attacked, he hadn't fully grappled with his prior... confrontation with you. As a result, the fears and uncertainties that have been with him were exaggerated one hundredfold. He's... terrified of you. And being here is going to keep him in a constant state of torment."

Vader was silent for many minutes. He finally said, "And if he were to leave?"

"It is very likely that he would recover."

"Will he recover of his fear of me?"

Xil nodded, "Yes. He simply needs to be given the opportunity to separate reality from his nightmares."

Vader swept out of the medibay, leaving Xil standing alone.

oOo

"What's going on?"

Vader stood silent, gazing at the small shuttle as it was prepped by his landing bay crew.

"Are they putting a tracking device on it?"

He said nothing.

"I'm not leaving here without Luke!"

"That won't be necessary, Princess." A quiet voice said from behind her. Leia spun, and found Xil and Kai guiding a stretcher containing Luke's sleeping form.

"We're leaving."

"B-but—" Leia stuttered as the doctor and his assistant moved past her towards the ship's boarding ramp. She turned back to Vader.

"You'll track us! This is a trap! What do you want from him! Why? WHY?"

Vader remained silent. Unmoved. He simply stared past her at the ship and the stretcher being pushed up the boarding ramp.

The princess cast him one last suspicious glare, and hurried after her friend. Soon after the ramp closed after her.

oOo

"We can't go back to the Rebel base!"

Xil gazed at the hysterical princess impassively, "And why is that?"

"We're being followed!"

"I assure you, we're not."

"But that's Vader!"

The Omwati sighed and leaned back in the pilot's seat. "Princess, with all due respect, if he merely wanted to follow us, he would have let you, Kai, and I go and kept Luke."

"I'm telling you— it's a trap."

"And I'm telling you— it's not."

She crossed her arms stubbornly, "What makes you think so?"

"Your highness, as much as you want to paint Vader as a monster, there is a man in that suit."

"No—"

He held up his hand to stop her retort, "Luke's condition is not stabilizing because he was on that ship, near Vader, the catalyst of Luke's nightmares."

"That's because he's a monster!"

"It's because Luke hasn't fully accepted who Vader is."

Leia's jaw dropped open, "You're telling me that Luke isn't healing because he's actually considering accepting that— _thing_ as his father? And Vader understands all this and let him go?"

"Vader understood that something had to give: his dream of having his son at his side or his son's life."

"And he chose his son's life?" a whispered voice spoke from the corridor.

Both Leia and Xil jumped and turned towards the door to the cockpit.

"Luke!"

Luke was leaning heavily against the threshold; his fingers trembled as they clutched at the durasteel.

"He saved me?"

The doctor nodded.

"And then he let us all go?"

Xil confirmed again.

"Because..."

"He loves you."

Luke closed his eyes.

"Turn around," he whispered.

Leia stood, "Luke, you don't know what you're saying!"

"No. Bring me back to my father. Turn around."

-------------------------------------

A/N: I was planning to end it there, but I've been beseeched to continue (BEFORE I posted this chapter, I might add!), so, I'm going to try to write to a second ending, but if I can't get to another satisfactory place to stop, I'm going to leave it here.

Thanks so much for reading, and all of your wonderful feedback!


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